About the Book

This book contains twenty-seven photographs taken on October 3rd, 2008. All twenty-seven, alongside another one hundred and fifty, can be found in the other book, titled Bud & Eugenie Get Hitched.

For several months we had planned to wed in England in the summer of 2009. Phone calls were made to hire Nordic tents and vintage American cars, the most delicious spit-roast in the UK was hunted down, as was the best bluegrass band.

And then...we stopped for a second and stood back. As fun as the wedding would be, it would also be absurd. Absurd to fork out so much money on one evening. How much better—for us and for our families—to use that money for something different, more long-lasting.

That's when we decided to elope in the old-fashioned way. None of these elopement packages, that somehow convince you it's worth spending over $5,000 on something you can figure out for yourself and pay a tenth of the price. If that.

We found a vintage wool Italian suit in a thrift store for $20, and a 70s smock on ebay for $40. We found a pastor in Bodega Bay, who agreed to marry us on a beach there, and who refused to charge us a dime. We found a cabin in Cazadero where we kicked back for a couple of nights. We were worried about not having any decent photographs, and nearly hired a photographer. But at over $2,000, we baulked. So between the two of us and the pastor's wife, we ended up with this.